Brown's strategy and overall vision for a NanoMedicine Center is to focus on an important medical problem, the biocompatibility of materials used in medical devices and implants. The technology of medical devices and implants comprises about 10% of existing medical practice in the United States and impacts the quality and duration of life for tens of millions of patients. Materials based therapies are highly diverse: devices may be intracorporeal (pacemakers) or extracorporeal (hemodialyzers); temporary (blood oxygenators) or permanent (artificial hips); life sustaining (heart valves) or disability-directed (cochlear ear). Biocompatibility of materials is a critical enabling technology for nearly all medical devices/implants and is a major factor limiting the use of new materials for the development of novel medical devices. Yet, we have only a rudimentary understanding of the properties of materials that render them biocornpatible and even less of an understanding of the molecular and cellular responses to foreign materials. A major advance will occur for this field as well as for medical care, if we can gain an understanding at the nanoscale of the interplay of materials and the molecular/cellular responses of the host. The proposed Center for Biocompatibility at the Nanoscale, would take advantage of Brown's historical strength in materials research, while leveraging and synergizing with four existing Centers at Brown focused on advanced materials research, biomedical engineering, genomics/proteomics and bioinformatics. By focusing on understanding the interaction of the molecular events of the host and the nanofeatures of materials, the Center for Biocompatibility at the Nanoscale will develop the knowledge base, design rules, fabrication processes and novel materials necessary to make the next generation of medical devices and implants.